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Technology Levels (3rd Edition)
__TOC__ Old 3rd edition GURPS books and GURPS Prime Directive use an older version of Tech Levels For the most part Tech Levels are the same until about TL8 at which point they diverge. Things that were made Superscience in 4e are in bold General 3e Tech Level overview 3e Tech Level by Field Tech Level 0 Sewing needle, drum, rope, fish-hook, saw, spindle Low-Tech Tech Level 1 — The Bronze Age The plow, papyrus, early forms of non-pictogram writing, mathematics, sundials, the month (lunar cycle defined mathematically), sails, chariots, brewing alcoholic beverages, potter's wheel, kilns, tanned hides (boiled or dried leather), woodcutting for fires, composite bow, sickle with curved handle, file, plane (wood-working), abacus, balance for weighing and measuring, ladder, trumpet (from animal horns), ships built from planks, early siege weapons (rams and picks) Low-Tech Wheelblades, bulldozer blades and plows for vehicles Vehicles Tech Level 2 — The Iron Age, Imperial Rome Keystone arch, horseback with a saddle, oceangoing galleys, shields, scale armor, power from windmills, bleeding the sick, chemical remedies Set Crop rotation, iron plowshare (the blade of the plow), heated rooms (heat pumped under tile floor), large-scale glassblowing, irrigation, water clocks, codex (early books), scrolls, rotary locks, heavy cavalry, wheelbarrow, bellows, bridle and bit, saddle, spurs, soap, weapons: pike, trident, mace, broadsword, shortsword, scythe, crossbow, metal harpoon, lasso, ballista Low-Tech Tech Level 3 — Medieval Steel weapons, mathematics with zero, transportation on horseback with a saddle and stirrups, sailing ships, lances, flails, crossbows, plate and chainmail, castles, power from horses with horse-collars, amputations and crude prosthetics Set Tech Level 4 — Renaissance, Colonial Gunpowder, printing, transportation from fully-rigged ships, hot-air balloons, black-powder muskets, cannon, sailing warships Set Dress smallsword, fencing saber, rapier, cavalry saber, buff coat (long leather coat worn by musketeers), amputations, bonesetting, cauterizing wounds, opium as a medical painkiller, basket hilt II Tech Level 5 — Industrial Revolution Mass production, steam power, telegraph, transportation by steam ship, railroads, zeppelins, ironclad warships, dynamite, repeating handguns, direct current power, germ theory of disease, anesthetics, vaccines Set Steam engine, earliest internal-combustion engine Vehicles Tech Level 6 — The World Wars Cars, airplanes, radio, ocean liners, submarines, battleships, tanks, machine-guns, fighter aircraft, fission bombs (A-bombs), flak jackets, hydroelectric power, alternating current, major surgery, antibiotics Set Helicopter drivetrain, tracked drivetrain, liquid fuel rocket, helium airships and manned balloons, weapon bays (in aircraft), radar, sonar, bombsight, airlock, steam turbine, diesel engine Vehicles Tech Level 7 — Modern Nuclear energy, computers, lasers, rockets, jet aircraft, space shuttles, mag-lev monorails, hovercraft, nuclear missiles (H-bombs), atomic submarines, Kevlar, fission and hot fusion power (nuclear power plants), solar power, organ transplants Set Ablative armor, composite armor, laminate armor, improved suspension for ground vehicles, variable sweep wings for aircraft, aircraft with controlled instability designs, improved brakes, all-wheel steering, roll stabilizers for water vehicles, leg drivetrain, magnetic levitation vehicles, orion engine (spacedrive using nuclear explosion for propulsion), ornithopter drivetrain (aircraft with mechanical flapping wings), lightsails (spacedrives that use light for propulsion), ducted propellers for water vehicles, ducted fans for aircraft, tilt rotors, turbofans, ramjets, turbo-ramjets, afterburners Vehicles Tech Level 8 — Spacefaring Slower-than-light space travel, fusion power, bionic implants, ballistic airliners, cybertanks, orbital lasers, BPC combat armor and battlesuits, gauss needlers, fission/electric power, orbital-collected solar power, cloning, plastiskin Set Tech Level 9 — Starfaring Blaster pistol, blaster rifle, electrolaser, electrolaser rifle, hand flamer, plasma rifle, tripod flamer, holdout laser, survival laser, monowire blade, monowire whip, dinosaur laser, gatling laser, gauss SMG, gauss battle rifle, sonic stinger, stunner (beam weapon), stun rifle, screamer (beam weapon), M-LAW (missile launcher), splat gun Ultra-Tech Tech Level 10 — Interstellar Civilization Bioplas sails for water vehicles, fusion air-ram (jet engine), hyperdrive, jump drive, warp drive, gatling x-laser vehicle gun, x-ray lasercannon, neutrino communicator, sentient computer, neural interface vehicle control: socket interface and neural induction field, artificial gravity unit (generates a gravity field inside or on top of vehicle in space), bioconvertor power plants (herbivore, carnivore, omnivore, vampire) Vehicles Tech Level 11 — Advanced Interstellar Civilization Gravgun, paralysis pistol, reactionless thruster, cannibal nanokits, translation program for robots, bioplastic nanomorphs, disassembler (nanobot cloud that breaks down matter) Robots Tech Level 12 — Intergalactic Force beamer, force rifle Ultra-Tech Tech Level 13 — Worldbuilding Assault pulsar (beam weapon), heavy pulsar Ultra-Tech Tech Level 14 — Dysonian Smartgun, heavy graser pistol (gamma-ray laser), military graser rifle, gatling graser Ultra-Tech Mindripper gun (neural disruptor), living-metal nanomorphs Robots Tech Level 16 — Miraculous, God-Like Tachyon shotgun Ultra-Tech Matter transmuter 2 Teleportation drive, teleport projector, reality stabilizer, cosmic power plant, displacer beam (a.k.a. tachyon shotgun or vortex beam) Vehicles References * GURPS Classic Basic Set * GURPS Classic Low Tech * GURPS Classic High Tech * GURPS Classic Ultra-Tech * GURPS Classic Ultra-Tech 2 * GURPS Compendium 2 * GURPS Vehicles Category:Technology Category:3rd Edition